Preventing Migraine Aura

I have been having Migraine aura since 2006. I largely blame them for my panic attacks and agoraphobia. Until I discovered Aspirin and connection with a hole in the heart.

The aura usually lasts about 20-30 mins starting with a blurred spot in the centre of vision and expanding across my visual field with zig-zag lines usually on the left field. I rarely ever get a headache from them only slight neck discomfort. They freak me out and petrify me. Things going wrong with the brain scare me. I’d be happy if all I got was headache like most sufferers at least pain killers relieve it but the horrible rotten aura is here to stay once it starts, nothing relieves it. Even if there was an inhaler to stop the attacks but there isn’t.

I used to enjoy going out driving etc but the fear of having one terrifies me and caused me to develop severe anxiety. So much I can’t work anymore and my life is just passing me by :(

Taking Asprin for relief

Since 2006 some years I got 6 or 7 a year some years I got none at all. Since 2016 they got more frequent by 2018 I was having one a month until one horrible evening I got 2 auras one after the other. I decided enough was enough and started taking one aspirin tablet every few days, as I knew they improve blood flow. Eureka! Between November 2018 and May 2019, all I had was 2. I then took one aspirin every 2 days and never suffered another Aura until Jan 2020. I became more confident, gradually becoming more outgoing less anxious.

I read about “patent foremen ovale” a largely harmless hole in the heart that affects 25% of the population and can cause microscopic blood clots to enter blood going to the brain, they block a blood vessel and cause the brain cells to become overexcited and cause the horrible visual aura. https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/patent-foramen-ovale-pfo-migraine/

These holes can be surgically closed or in my case aspirins to stop the clots ever forming. I thought I’d found the cure! Hooray!

In Jan 2020 I was forced to stop the aspirin because of a stomach ulcer. Low and behold 3 weeks later my Aura came back :( so I started the aspirins again at least once every 2 days...no migraine auras!

By April with the lockdown and shortages, I was forced to reduce my aspirins to a quarter of a tablet a day. Late April and bang! I got an aura. So I started having 1/2 an aspirin a day and 2 days later another bloody aura :( so maybe I was wrong. I’m stuck with this rotten filthy disease my anxiety will come back. I’m very angry. Why me? What the hell can I do to stop these auras? I just wish it was the hole in the heart and my theory was correct. I’d happily have major surgery to get my life back.